He meows. Makes hard eye contact but if I touch him , he gets mad and runs off.
What? What do you want!?!?! Why are you staring at me and meowing if you don't actually want me to do anything?!
He also seems to get mad and run off if I just look back at him and not try to pet him.
If I try to ignore him he just rolls around and sometimes does this little ridiculous "tantrum" deal where he will stand up and dramatically throw himself down and then roll onto his back. It's always loud cause he's a big cat. It can't feel very good. But he does it all the time.
Idk. Maybe he just likes being dramatic.
Anyway. Any cat whisperers who have figured it out, let me know.
Cats will often show you their belly as a sign of trust, as it makes them vulnerable. Some cats love to have their bellies rubbed, others view it as a breach of trust and will shred you, even though they flopped over. If it's a cat you don't know, the best thing is to just reach down and scratch the top of their head around the ears. If you want to see how far you can push it, give them scritches under the chin, move down to the upper chest, and inch your way lower to see how far they're okay with going.
This quickly turned into cat fan-fiction
If I even approach with my hand he gets mad and runs off before I even make contact. He is generally fond of cheek rubs. But he won't even let me do that when he's on his back.
To me it sounds like it could be what some littermates do to eachother, he's calling you to play. Our cats will do this same thing, but to each other: Jade will first go groom Ciri's face for a bit, perhaps a little stranglehold here, or she flops down in front of her sister, asking her to jump on top and wrestle, a lot like what you've described in the post. YMMV obviously, you know your cat better than a stranger online etc., but my two cents from my experience with a lot of litters in the past, I've seen this before many times.
It can also be what comment above said, he could be just showing his trust to you, but since it's such a high stakes thing, he could be a little overstimulated and doesn't know what he actually wants, and just reacts like his instincts are telling him.
Some cats, even cats that know and trust you react much better if you pet them with a hand they dont see approach. Sometimes I distract a cat with one hand and start stroking with another. I think laying on your back is a very vulnerable position for a cat, most cats I had did it but only one stayed in that position while I was approaching.
My friends watching me scratch the floor in the other room, look back at their cat, take another step and scratch the floor again
I think you might be right from what I can gather without a video to check the body language and a longer term observation.
Spot on, but I would personally go for slow horizontal approach to cheeks if you don't know the cat, a lot of cats freak out about things above them, so going directly to top of head is a bit risky, and has gotten me bit before. I would offer a scent mark target first, just stick a (tucked in, hard to bite!) knuckle out for them and if they rub their cheek against it, you're golden. After that I would move to chin and then top of head/behind ears.